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[chechatonga]

Man, I hunt deer and will eat them, but they no way compare to a good steak or a fine ham. You would never know that to look at a road kill and all the loons that rush, and I mean rush to get the carcus, some of the bone heads even want a road kill to mount, I mean that is like wearing a medal you did not earn, what the heck. I once had a job where I ran into a lot of road kills/Co. Hwy. When a road kill occured the nut jobs would stand and argue over the carcus, like it was a pot of gold, and these guys were not needfull, just deer crazy. Guess that is what happens if you hunt them and never get one. Anyone else ever see this reaction to a road kill??

[ChesterGolf]

Funny you brought this up... I am hunting an area that has(had) a large body 14 pointer. I hunted this deer hard this year because I really wanted him. Long story short, I am walking out of the woods to my parked vehicle just in time to see my trophy run over by a car and killed stone dead. The car was totalled and so was the deer. The police and DNR eventually came and asked who wanted the deer. The arguing that occurred after that question was unreal. I personally didn't want it because it was hamburg at best, but some of the spectators would have killed for the head. What is this world coming to?

[bitmasher]

Interesting, until reading this post I didn't realize that road kill was such a hot commodity.

I personally have never seen people argue over road kill. I've lived in areas with a high amount of road kill, and hitherto this thread I figured the only animal that wanted the meat was the coyotes.

So these people will argue over a doe even? I can understand a bit of a rush if it was a trophy bull or perhaps a predator (mtn lion, fox), but with the busted guts and blood shot meat, I highly doubt it is something I would want to eat...

I thought all those "gourmet road kill" books were just jokes.....

[expatriate]

What I'd like to see is one of those PETA types show up while people are arguing over road kill. I can only imagine the mortification...it'd be priceless.

But aside from the mortification, it'd be a great opportunity to confront political views. When standing over a whitetail that's been blasted in half in an accident that sent a family to the hospital, I'd like to ask the AR activist how that's more humane than hunting as a means of population control.

[cob]

peta actually encourages eating roadkill. I don't have the link but i got one about a year ago to their website. they had a page deticated to roadkill. the basic message was "we know some people are going to eat meat anyway so we encourage them to eat the roadkill because it all tastes the same"
If i hit a deer and there was any salvagable meat, i would probably take it and if it had antlers of any size i would take them to make knife handles and pens but i certainly wouldn't argue for one or display a roadkill rack.

[bitmasher]

Quote:
peta actually encourages eating roadkill.


Holy Smokes! I wonder if those NJ activists (from other threads), scrapped up the deer they smooshed and ate it?

Expatriate, the problem with peta is that they are not rational, so unfortunately I doubt they would see the irony in the scene described above. Instead they would probably say that the particular department of wildlife in question had "artifically increased the population" at the behest of hunters. If populations were left to "self-control" themselves, deer populations would be smaller leading to less road kill.

Road kill is a big deal. Read an article a few months ago that suggested that there is more animal life (big game, small game, birds) taken out of the ecosystem via road collisions than by human hunting. The car as predator....

[ This Message was edited by: bitmasher on 2002-12-02 21:46 ]

[expatriate]

When you look at it that way, you have to admit that there's also a lot more human life taken out of the ecosystem by road collisions than by hunting.

If PETA claimed that roadkill tastes the same, I'd have to take issue. Not that I've ever eaten roadkill, but I can't see it comparing.

I'm curious, though. If cars have become the dominant predator in the deer's environment, what would Darwin predict in terms of eventual adaptation through natural selection?

[cob]

I subscribe to a goofy news letter called Bizarre News. You can check it out at http://www.bizarrenews.com.
anyway, here's a story from today's issue.

------------------- Road Kill Restitution -------------------

ACTON, Maine - A woman in Maine is upset after not being paid
for the road kill she created. After Lisa Pierce's car struck
and killed a moose, she felt it was within her legal right to
claim monetary restitution for the meat that was given away by
police after the incident. According to Pierce, "I want to be
compensated for the meat." A butchered or dressed moose, which
can't be bought or sold anywhere in Maine, can produce hundreds
of pounds of food. Police say she will not be given a cash pay-
ment for her slaughter, but instead will be given the next moose
struck in York County. So today's lesson is, make sure you have
yourself a tractor ready the next time you plow through a help-
less forest creature to pick that carcass up for eatin'. Don't
let anyone deny you the right to your road kill.

[bitmasher]

The car as predator story I was referring to was in the Oct 1 wall street journal (I think it was on the front page). Here is a quote:

It is the hulking SUV, not the mighty brown bear, that is the king of North American predation. American cars kill an estimated 300 million animals a year, roughly one a week per mile of roadway -- including 34 million squirrels, 16 million raccoons, 8 million possums, 6 million deer, 5 million cats and more than a million dogs.

This link seems to carry some of the article:

http://www.southcountyjournal......tml/101059

As for Darwin, he definitely predicted the rise of deer-mercs (only the strong shall survive). So did Nostradamus.

I think Darwin also would have predicted that the most likely deer to pass on their genes would be those deer that don't have an inordinate fascination with head lights. (As a side note, have any of you ever wondered what goes through a deer's head while it is standing there staring into your glaring headlights? I'm also completely baffled as to what deer are thinking, when they will wait beside the road for a few thousand feet as you approach them, then actually try to "make a break for it" by running in front of the vehicle. Primal instinct would suggest you should run away from the "loud bright thing" instead of toward the loud bright thing.) Of course those that actually scram upon hearing a honking horn or squealing brakes should fair well over a few deer generations as well...

Cob, good thing Maine didn't actually pay that lady, road kill would have become an overnight gold mine. Smack everyone you can, the state pays big!

[ This Message was edited by: bitmasher on 2002-12-04 22:02 ]

[moderator]

Apparently in Montana it is illegal to keep road-kill at all.

[bitmasher]

That is interesting that Montana forbids a person to keep road kill. I assume this is to prevent people from intentionally killing an animal with a car just for the meat/trophy?

[chechatonga]

I heared you Cob, it is in my point of view ok to salvage the meat and horn(antler) for use I see no problem at all with that kind of thing, what always got me was the FLOOD of people who wanted the road kill, fresh stuff just happened kind of thing, not the days old bloated carcuss thing. But to mount it and make up a yarn about I hunted hard to get that bad boy, that is a bit much for me. It lessens a person to do that even if they don't realize it. I mean if a person asks what did you use to get that giant, what do you say Goodyears P225/75R16's

[Jennings]

My freezer was full of venison last year due to a road-kill buck. I have a friend who is a cop, and is kept very busy with deer collisions every fall, several a day. He actually has a long list of names and #'s of people who will come out, clean it in the ditch, and take it away. I'm on the list. He told me last year that while he waited for me to show up at least 20 people stopped and pretty much begged for it. It's funny how the person who hits the deer never wants it, and people that want the venison never hit one.

[bitmasher]

Quote:
It's funny how the person who hits the deer never wants it, and people that want the venison never hit one.


Yeah that is a good point, guess they are just pissed over the vehicle damage.

Do you butcher your own meat? Reason I ask is because was the buck you took last year pretty blood shot? I suppose it depends on how it was hit, if it was a head impact maybe the entire body would be recoverable.

[Jennings]

Took it to the butcher. It was hit in the hindquarter I think. That meat I kept for my dog (he still gets happy when I go to the freezer). Useable meat added up to 90lbs worth. A few of the best roasts I've ever had.